Sunday, May 4, 2014

For the past number of years (three? five?) I've been amazed at how much learning and sharing I've been doing with math teachers from around world thanks to what's known at the MTBoS or the MathTwitterBlogoSphere. The MTBoS is essentially an online community of math teachers who share ideas and resources, bounce ideas off one another, etc.

During the time that I have been involved with this great online learning, I've found it very strange that I interact with math teachers from around the globe more than I do with teachers in my own district. This seems odd and totally wrong to me. How is it that teachers within the same district, within driving distance of each other, somehow don't have the opportunity to connect? How do you connect locally? Is it through organized professional development sessions or informal get-togethers after hours? I'd love to hear some strategies that work for you.

On a somewhat related note:

Last week while I was reading Dan Meyer's Public Relations post on appearances he has made, the feeling of oddness I mentioned above reared its head again. Dan posted a link to the Ontario Ministry of Education's Leaders in Educational Thought: Special Edition on Mathematics. Despite the fact that I'm a math teacher, in Ontario, who is very interested in mathematics education and despite the fact that this material has been around since September 2013, this was the first time I had seen it. How is it that blogger from California is letting me know about resource that are available from the ministry that I work for? It's entirely possible that I missed some sort of memo or something but I would guess that I'm not alone. I feel as though somewhere along the line the message got lost. It seems a shame that money is being spent on these resources that don't seem to be getting used. Do you work as a teacher in Ontario? Did you know about these resources? If so how did you find out about them? I'm asking not to lay blame but simply out of curiosity.

I did a little digging and discovered that it's possible to subscribe, via email, to the Edugains site. By subscribing you will get an email update anytime new materials are added. To subscribe go to the desired section and click on the orange RSS button at the bottom. I also contacted the people at the Edugains site to see if there was a way of subscribing via RSS. It turns out that there is not at this time.